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The Greeves Series is for Greeves manufactured motorcycles made from 1954 to 1973. A bonus points system is in place to entice everything from the earlier Iron Barreled Hawkstones to the later 380cc Griffon QUB. Run by ex-greeves employee, Dave Harper, the Series has been a huge success. From its foremost race held in 2001 at Maylandsea, the series has gone from strength to strength and is now consistantly contended by a grid of almost thirty-five riders. With these grid numbers set to increase, many motorcycle clubs around England have shown a high level of interest in running a round of the series at one of their meetings. Click here for Greeves Series 2004 Review The Greeves Series is for Greeves manufactured motorcycles made from 1954 to 1973. A bonus points system is in place to entice everything from the earlier Iron Barreled Hawkstones to the later 380cc Griffon QUB. 2008 National Greeves Classic Scrambles Series Dates 1. 13 April – Pre-65 Motocross Club, Marks Tey, Essex
2008 Greeves Series Rules
1 Championship Rounds Championship rounds will be held at selected AMCA classic scrambles events. Twelve rounds are planned with the best nine to count, consisting of two or three points scoring races at each event. In the event of three races, the best two will count. 2 Classes The Greeves Championship is split into 4 classes:
All 4 championships are run simultaneously and each rider is automatically entered into the Overall championship and into one of the Bike Model Specific (ie. Pre 64, 69, 74) championships on a per-race basis, meaning riders can change to a different model of bike between races. 3 Championship Points 1st 25 points, 2nd 22 pts, 3rd 20 pts, 4th 19 pts down to 21st 1 pt. 4 Machines
Electronic ignition and no standard clutches are acceptable. New cylinders must conform to original dimensions as outlined in the AMCA rules. New multi-port cylinders are not permitted. Only Mk1 Villiers Starmaker engines (wide fins) are permitted. (No Stormer engines) 6 Carburettors
7 Bonus Points - Machine
8 Bonus Points - Rider Grading
9 Starts In the event of there being more riders than the start-line can cope with, there will be a second row, all grade C, D and newcomers will be required to start from this second row. There will be a time delay before the second row starts, the organising club will decide this on the day. 10 Series AwardsTrophies will be awarded to
11 Special Awards
11 Registration Fee A registration fee of £10 for the championship is to help with mailing costs and part funding of the awards. All registered riders will receive a 2005 Greeves Championship mug. History of how the Greeves Scrambles Series began The Greeves Championship is the brainchild of Dave Harper. Earlier this year he wrote an article for the Pre 65 Motocross Club newsletter explaining how the idea of the championship was provisioned and how it has progressed through its first few formative years...Nobody has been more surprised at the success of the Greeves Pre 65 Motocross Championship than me. The Editor of the newsletter has asked me to document the story of the Greeves Series, from its chance conception in 1999 to one of the most supported races at the Pre 65 Motocross Club meetings. The beginning... Back in February 1999 whilst trying to sell second-hand Greeves parts at a Kempton Park Auto jumble with John and Geoff Collard I met a man who re-directed and changed my motorcycling hobby. Nick Radley was the man in question. With Nick being so young I could not understand his enthusiasm for Greeves until he told me his brother raced an MX5 Challenger and a twin port Griffon at Pre 65 Motocross meetings. At this time I was heavily involved in grass track racing, but had since 1985, attended the occasional Pre 65 Motocross meetings in Essex to watch John and Geoff wrestle their BSA Goldstars through the mud. One thing always disappointed me was how few Greeves were competing. On that cold Saturday at Kempton Park Nick was looking for parts to complete a 380cc QUB Griffon of his own that he was rebuilding. What he did not know was that 30 years earlier I had been working with Bob Mills and Ray Taylor on the prototype Griffons at the Greeves factory and desperately trying to get three ready for the Easter scramble at Brighton. What's more, I had a garage full of Griffons and parts that i had been collecting since those early days!! Within weeks of meeting Nick i had decided to drag one of the Griffons out of the garage and find someone to ride it. It seems hard to believe now but this 250, which had laid untouched for twenty years, was taken to a Pre 65 meeting untried. My grass track pal Chris Norris turned up the morning of the meeting, entered on the day and took out membership of the club. The bike ran like clockwork all day, Chris had five good races and enjoyed every minute. We were both hooked and together we attended the last two rounds of the 1999 season. Year 2000... Over the winter I rebuilt the 380 QUB Griffon that had last been used in 1978 for Chris to ride in the 2000 season. My long term friend Grant Champney joined us to ride the 250. However I still wanted to see more Greeves being used and tried to persuade other owners to ride but most felt intimidated by the trick BSA's, Replica Cottons and so on. It was then I thought about a Greeves Only race. Following a chat with Nick and his brother Greg, who is a club committee member, it was proposed to run a Greeves only race at the Pre 65 August Motocross Charity meeting at Maylandsea, with each rider donating £5 to the St. John's Ambulance. To say the least, this bought about a cool reception, as one make races were frowned upon, but i was told that if I could guarantee a minimum of twenty riders we could go ahead on a one off basis. Finding twenty riders wasn't going to be easy but the word was put out and with Nick Radley's offer to ride his showpiece 380 QUB Griffon we had the minimum number of rider required. Incidentally, Nick had never ridden off-road before, brave man!! The race was run as a handicap with Hawkstones off first, then Challengers and finally Griffons. Year 2001... The success of the race made me want more as it was great to see so many Greeves on the racetrack again. During the winter of 2001 much lobbying took place and Greg Radley on my behalf asked the Club committee if we could run a Greeves only series and much to everybody's surprise the answer was YES! Pre-season advertising literature was circulated within the Pre 65 Club and other interested parties. The objective of the series was to produce a clear winner, irrespective of rider age, rider ability, machine type or machine capacity. This was achieved by the use of a bonus points score system. Within the overall championship there were also classes of different machines, Pre 64 (Hawkstone's and MDS), Pre 69 (Challengers) and Pre 74 (Griffons). The first Greeves Series 2001 season got off to the worst possible start with the Foot and Mouth outbreak. However, by the spring bank holiday weekend a two-day meeting was given the all clear at Marks Tey near Colchester. A good Greeves entry of 22 riders, a broad mix of bikes and competitive racing got the Greeves Series off to an excellent start. In addition to the actual riders, some whom got hooked and by the end of the season a further five had joined the fray. Year 2002... As with any new process a serious review took place before the start of the 2002 season so that i could upon the successes of 2001. Democratically the Greeves series riders of 2001 were lobbied with revised proposals to make the points system fairer to all competitors. Auto jumble days at Kempton Park were often the place of discussion with spontaneous group of interested parties getting together to review the latest proposals. Well before the first meeting of the year, again at Marks Tey, the revised points system was in place. The first meeting was so well subscribed that a few riders had to start from a second row of the starting line!! I have also been told by some riders on the start line that day that I looked quite emotional at the sight of almost 40 riders on the line. The Future... The series continues to go from strength to strength, with a good mix of bikes, excellent camaraderie amongst the riders and a wide age spread of competitors. I am very conscious that without the younger riders coming through the series will waste away as the older Greeves riders become to old to ride anymore. The Pre 65 Motocross Club has also benefited indirectly because membership and meetings attendance has increased, and therefore revenues, a real win win situation for all concerned. So why not join in? Dust off that old Greeves and come and race with us. I hope to see you there. Dave Harper |
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